Keep sharing good news without ads.
John 6:52–58 Pastor Rob Kimsey October 13, 2024 https://laurelbiblechurch.net/
So, today we're gonna talk about faith. This passage is about faith.
We all put our trust in something, do we not? Many different things we are being pressured to put our trust in.
Maybe it's our careers, relationships, money, even ourselves.
The world is full of things begging for our trust. But the question we need to ask is, are we trusting in the right thing?
In verses 52 through 58, Jesus uses a powerful image to make his point.
He compares believing in him to eating and drinking, two things we literally cannot live without.
Just like your body needs food and water, your soul needs Jesus' sacrifice, his sacrifice on the cross for eternal life.
He says, my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink.
Now, we'll see in the responses back and forth that they're just utterly confused, and it seems that even some intellectual dishonesty is going on.
He's not telling the Jews to become cannibals, just think about their response. No, he's using a metaphor to drive home the point that we must fully accept what he did for us on the cross.
But back then, this didn't sit well with the unbelieving Jews. For them, the idea of a
Messiah who would die, especially in such a humiliating way, was just unthinkable.
They couldn't wrap their minds around it. A crucified savior? That wasn't what they expected.
So, they missed the deeper meaning Jesus was trying to convey. Their eyes were closed to the spiritual reality he was showing them.
Now, you might think Jesus was talking about communion here, but that's not the case.
Communion hadn't even been established yet. And if he wasn't talking about, I guess if he was talking about communion, then everyone who takes part in communion would automatically receive eternal life, right?
But that's not the message. Jesus was pointing to something greater, our need to put our faith in his work on the cross.
So today, the challenge for us is this, are we putting our faith in the temporary things this world offers, or are we trusting in the eternal work of Christ?
Because only one of those leads to real, lasting life. Picture this, you're at a restaurant, you order the finest steak on the menu.
It comes out perfectly cooked, without mouth -watering aroma.
The chef tells you, if you don't eat this, you'll starve. Now imagine if you just decided to stare at it, to admire it, maybe even talk about how amazing it looks, without ever actually eating it.
I guess people do that, before you eat, you'll see people with their phone out, taking pictures of their food. If you ever go to eat with me, please don't do that.
Like, I just want to eat my food, and the person's like, selfie with the steak, it's so weird. But think about it, how long do you think you'd last before hunger takes over?
Well, Jesus used this same kind of imagery in John 6. He wasn't handing out dinner plans, but making a point about where real sustenance comes from.
Just like you can't survive without food or drink, you can't have eternal life without putting your trust in the right source,
Him. Jesus says, you've got to consume me, my body, my blood.
Now before we kind of look at it in that literal way, or get weirded out about these comments, let's remember,
He's talking spiritually here. He's talking spiritually, not literally. His body and blood represent the sacrifice
He was going to make on the cross, the very thing we need to truly live forever. The people around Jesus, though, didn't quite get the memo.
They were thinking, wait, eat His body? Drink His blood? That's crazy. For them, a crucified
Messiah was a contradiction. How could the King they were waiting for also be someone who would die a humiliating death?
They couldn't see beyond their own expectations and their own traditions. They were spiritually blind, missing the deeper meaning right in front of them.
And let's not forget, Jesus wasn't even talking about communion yet. No, that comes later, later.
So when He's telling them to eat and drink, He's not saying, pass the bread and wine for a church service.
No, He's saying, trust in me. Accept my sacrifice. And let that be your spiritual food.
Faith in Christ isn't like that steak sitting on your plate. You can't just admire it or talk about it or take a picture and put it on Instagram.
No, you've got to dive in. You've got to let it nourish your soul. In verses 52 through 58, we see the end of the discourse between Jesus and the unbelieving
Jews following the feeding of the 5 ,000 and Him walking on water so that you see the importance of feeding on Jesus, everlasting life with Christ or eternal damnation by Christ.
As Jesus concludes His remarks to the Jews, we'll see the infighting of the
Jews. We'll see the implication Jesus makes to resurrection. We'll see the illustration
Jesus gives of His upcoming sacrifice and the illumination from God the
Father of everlasting life. In verse 52, we see the infighting.
Look again at verse 52. Then the Jews began to argue with one another saying, how can this man give us
His flesh to eat? In this verse, we find the Jews arguing amongst themselves over Jesus' words saying, how can this man give us
His flesh to eat? This moment reveals the blindness of their hearts for they were concerned with the carnal, unable to perceive the spiritual depths of Christ's teaching just as they had misunderstood
His earlier teachings. Now again, they are caught in confusion, trapped by their own unwillingness to look beyond the physical to the eternal truths that He's imparting.
The Jews in their debates exhibit a form of unbelief that is not merely ignorance, no, this is obstinacy.
This is a willingness to not believe, a willingness to not listen. Rather than seeking the truth humbly, they contended with one another as if wrestling not with Jesus' words but with the truth itself.
This disputing spirit reflects the same hardness we see throughout Scripture.
When God's people failed to grasp His revelations because they would not bow their hearts in faith, their quarrelsome disposition showed that they were not merely inquiring sincerely into a difficult teaching but rejecting the very notion that their
Messiah would offer Himself as their spiritual sustenance. Now, we need to keep it in context and understand that these are
Jewish people. The law had forbidden the drinking of blood and the eating of flesh with blood still in it.
This is from Leviticus chapter 17, just a few verses here. It says in Leviticus 17, for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.
For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore, I said to the sons of Israel, no person among you may eat blood and no sojourner who sojourns among you may eat blood.
For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life, therefore
I said to the sons of Israel, you are not to eat the blood of any flesh for the life of all flesh is its blood.
Whoever eats it shall be cut off. So that's important for us to understand. Here in verse 52, the
Jews could not move beyond their legalistic understanding of the command. Their earthly minds were fixated on the law, unable to comprehend that Jesus was pointing them to something far greater, himself, as the true bread from heaven.
He was not speaking of literal flesh and blood, but of his sacrificial death that would bring eternal life to all who partake of him by faith.
This is about faith, believing, and yet instead of coming to him in faith, they bickered and strove among themselves, blocking the very path of life they so desperately needed.
We must learn from their failure. It is not enough to hear the words of Christ.
We must feed upon them. Just as our bodies need food and drink to live, so too must our souls feast upon Christ's finished work on the cross for our eternal life.
There is no other food that can satisfy, no other drink that can quench our deepest thirst, and to reject this provision is to remain in spiritual famine.
When Christ offers us his body and blood, his very life for our salvation, it is not for us to dispute the manner, but to humbly receive and partake.
To reject this offer is not merely to miss a theological point, but to lose our very souls.
The everlasting life is found in him alone, and to feed on him by faith is to enter into that life.
But for those who refuse, there awaits only eternal damnation. For Christ, who is the
Savior, will also be the judge. Therefore, let us not follow the example of those who argued among themselves, failing to see the salvation before their eyes.
Instead, let us come to Christ, feeding on him by faith, that we might receive eternal life.
The question is not how, but rather will you? Will you? Will you trust in him?
Will you remain in the barrenness of your own striving? The choice between life and death, blessing and curse, is laid before us.
And it is Christ alone who offers life. May we feed on him and live.
What if a group of people gathered around, arguing fiercely over something that is a matter of life and death?
This is exactly what we see in verse 52, but they're missing the most important point altogether.
The Jews are quarreling among themselves, debating the very words of life that Jesus has spoken. They are caught up in their own pride, their own misunderstanding, that they fail to grasp the eternal truth standing right in front of them.
They ask, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They mock him, bicker among themselves, and completely miss what
Christ is offering. Eternal life through his flesh and blood. And this scene reveals something tragic, not just about them, but all of us.
Isn't this what we do? We fight, we argue, we debate about the things of God, but often we miss the very heart of the gospel.
We quarrel over doctrines, rituals, and traditions, and in the process, we sometimes lose sight of the most basic, essential truth of our faith,
Christ crucified. The Jews were offended by Jesus' words because they could not comprehend them on a spiritual level.
They saw only the physical, but Jesus was offering something far greater, the bread of life, the sacrifice that would pay for their sins.
You see, the problem wasn't just with their minds, no, it was with their hearts.
They didn't want to humble themselves before a savior who spoke of giving his life for them.
They were too proud, too stuck in their own self -righteousness to recognize their need for a crucified
Messiah. And here's the point for us, we must ask ourselves, are we any different?
How often do we get caught up in arguments, theological disputes, or distractions while neglecting the simple, clear command of Christ, feed on me?
We sometimes debate issues that aren't eternal while neglecting the gospel itself.
And here's the terrifying truth, if we fail to feed on Christ, if we fail to come to him by faith and embrace his sacrifice for us, we will die in our sins.
It doesn't matter how religious we are, how much scripture we know, how many good works we perform, without Christ, without feeding on him, we have no life in us.
Jesus' words in this passage are not optional. They are a matter of eternal life or eternal death.
He says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
You have no life in you. Brothers and sisters, do you understand the weight of these words?
This isn't just religious language, this is life and death. Christ is the only way to eternal life, and apart from him, we are lost.
So what does it mean to feed on Christ? It means we must fully depend on him, trust in his finished work on the cross, and find our life in him alone.
It means surrendering our self -righteousness, our pride, our religious traditions, and clinging to Christ as our only hope.
Just as food sustains your body, Christ must sustain your soul. So if you're not feeding on Christ daily, if your life is not rooted in his sacrifice, you're in grave danger.
And this, we see, is the infighting of the Jews. So if you're following the sermon outlined in your bulletin, the infighting of the
Jews, they couldn't get past their own arguments, their own self -importance to see what
Christ was offering. They couldn't get past their own arguments, their own self -importance to see what
Christ was offering. Don't make the same mistake. Don't let pride, doubt, or distraction keep you from the only source of eternal life.
Come to Christ, feed on him, live. And so we see this morning the discourse between Jesus and the unbelieving
Jews, and in verses 53 and 54 we see the implication, the implication.
So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
The implication. In verses 53 and 54, our Lord presents a solemn and weighty truth.
After witnessing his miraculous feeding of the 5 ,000 and hearing about his walking on water, the
Jews, though beneficiaries of his mercy, continued in their unbelief and strife. Here, in the conclusion of his discourse with them,
Jesus lays before them the highest stakes imaginable. Life or death, salvation or damnation.
And he does so by calling their attention to the necessity of feeding on his flesh and drinking his blood.
Not in a literal sense, but in a spiritual reality of faith in his atoning work.
The context makes that clear. So this is a question that you get asked sometimes if you're a pastor, oh, what does this mean?
Is this communion? And well, just look at the context. Let me point you to verses 63 and 64.
Very crystal clear. You should just read a few passages beyond. What does Christ say? Verse 63 and the first part of verse 64, he says, the spirit is the one who gives life.
The spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe. Clearly, this is not a literal physical feasting.
This is a spiritual reality. So just really clear in the context there that this is a spiritual reality of faith.
We're looking at the atoning work of Christ. In verse 53, Christ declares with holy authority, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. This is no mere suggestion, but a commandment accompanied by a grave warning.
It is as if Christ in his righteous indignation is saying, you mock and scorn the gift of life
I offer, but I tell you plainly, without partaking of me, there is no other way to live.
His use of flesh and blood here is a figure representing the totality of his sacrifice, the offering of his body on the cross and the shedding of his blood for the remission of sins.
Yet the Jews, hardened in heart, could not comprehend the spiritual truth he was conveying.
Bound as they were by their fleshly understanding and the limitations of the law which forbade the drinking of blood.
Jesus' warning speaks to all who reject him. Without him, without feeding on his life and work, there is no hope, only eternal separation from God's grace.
We must see this in the picture of the gospel itself. To refuse
Christ is to seal our fate. To reject his sacrifice is to court damnation.
Just as the body dies without nourishment, so too will the soul perish without the life -giving sustenance of Christ's flesh and blood.
This is the plight of all who do not come to him in faith. But in verse 54, the tone shifts from warning to promise.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.
Herein lies the great hope of the gospel. To those who believe, to those who by faith partake of Christ's sacrifice, eternal life is granted.
And note the emphasis. Those who feed on Christ do not wait passively for life at the resurrection.
They have it now. This is eternal life as a present possession even while we await its full consummation at the resurrection.
Christ repeatedly ties the promise of resurrection to eternal life, for the two are inseparable.
The fullness of salvation, body and soul, awaits that final day when we shall be raised in glory.
Thus, even as we now live by feeding on Christ, our hope is fixed on that future resurrection, when the life he gives will be brought to completion.
Until that day, the life we have in him is hidden. It's known only to those who by faith rise above the world and look to Christ.
It must be said clearly that this passage does not refer to the Lord's Supper, as some have mistakenly asserted.
If partaking in the supper alone secured eternal life, then all who come to the Lord's table would be saved.
But we know that coming to the Lord's table in an unworthy manner actually brings upon themselves judgment, not life.
Jesus here speaks of the spiritual feeding on his flesh and blood that happens through faith.
This is a daily, a perpetual partaking of Christ. Yet this passage is not about the
Lord's table. It does point there. You can see some, maybe a type or a shadow. The Lord's table is given as a sign.
It's given as a seal of this very truth that by faith we feed on Christ's body and blood.
It is not the Lord's table that saves, but Christ himself and the supper serves to strengthen our faith in the reality of his sacrifice as a memorial.
Therefore let us not be like the Jews who quarreled among themselves and rejected the life that Christ offered.
Instead what should we do? Well, let us come to him with humble hearts, feeding on him by faith, receiving eternal life that he freely gives.
Only in him is there life. Life now and life forevermore in the resurrection on the last day.
May we never despise the humble means by which he offers us salvation, but rather let us cherish the life that comes from his flesh and blood, knowing that in Christ alone is our hope.
In Christ alone is our life. In Christ alone is our resurrection. Imagine for a moment that you're standing in a cemetery.
You're in a cemetery. The air is heavy with silence. The tombstones are worn by time and all around you is the evidence of death's finality.
Now picture this. In the middle of all this death, someone comes to you and says,
I can give life here. I can raise the dead. I am the source of life and if you partake of me, you will never truly die.
How would you respond? Would you scoff? Would you argue?
Or would you listen? In verses 53 and 54, Jesus makes a radical and shocking statement, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.
He's standing in front of these unbelieving Jews who are spiritually dead and he's offering them the very thing they need most, life.
Not just life here and now, but eternal life. The promise of resurrection.
The hope that death doesn't get the final word. Yet many of them respond with skepticism, confusion, or even offense.
Jesus is telling them that without him, they are dead. They may be walking and talking, breathing, but without Christ, they are spiritually dead and will remain in their graves until the resurrection to judgment.
But with him, with his flesh and blood, his sacrifice, they can have eternal life and not just eternal life in some vague spiritual sense.
Jesus promises resurrection. He says, I will raise him up on the last day.
What a wonderful promise. But here's the thing, the Jews didn't want to hear it. They were more concerned with their religious traditions, their theological debates, and their self -righteousness.
They couldn't grasp the path to life was through a crucified Savior. They were offended by the idea of eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
And many of us today are just offended by the cross. We don't like to hear that we are hopeless without Jesus, that we are dead in our sins unless we partake in his sacrifice.
But here's the point. If you do not feed on Christ, if you do not trust in his broken body and his shed blood, you have no life in you.
You might look alive. You might go to church, sing the songs, give to the poor.
But if you're not depending entirely on the finished work of Christ for your salvation, you are dead.
There is no eternal life in you. And more than that, there is no resurrection to life waiting for you, only judgment.
Jesus promises, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
And I will raise him up on the last day. This is the ultimate hope for the believer.
Yes, we will face physical death. But for those who are in Christ, death is not the end.
The grave is not our final destination. Because Jesus died and rose again, so will we.
But that promise is only for those who feed on him, who trust in him, who rest in his sacrifice.
Dear friends, I plead with you, do not be like the unbelieving Jews who argued, who debated and who missed the point.
Don't let pride, tradition, self -righteousness keep you from the life that Christ is offering.
He is the bread of life. He is the only way to the Father. If you trust in him, if you feed on him, you will be raised to eternal life.
But if you reject him, if you reject him, there is only eternal death.
And there is no middle ground here. The resurrection Jesus promises is real.
This is the implication Jesus makes to resurrection. It's not just a metaphor.
It's a future event that will happen. The implication.
It's not just a metaphor. It's a future event that will happen.
The question is, will you be raised to eternal life with Christ?
Or will you face eternal damnation apart from his grace?
Feed on Christ. Trust in his sacrifice. There is no other way to life.
This morning we see the discourse between Jesus and the unbelieving Jews so that you can see the importance of feeding on Christ.
Everlasting life with Christ or eternal damnation by Christ. In verses 55 and 56 we see the illustration.
The illustration. Jesus says, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
The illustration. In these verses we find a profound and vivid illustration from Christ himself declaring the necessity of his upcoming sacrifice.
Jesus in the midst of his discourse with the unbelieving Jews emphasizes what is central to his mission and to the salvation of the world.
His body and his blood given for the life of sinners. And as he speaks, he draws a line between eternal life and eternal damnation.
There is no middle ground here. One must either feed on him and live or reject him and perish.
In verse 55 Jesus affirms that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink.
He contrasts the sustenance of the soul with that of the body. Just as the body withers and dies without food, so does the soul starve without the heavenly nourishment
Christ offers. This declaration is not mere metaphor but the very heart of the gospel.
Only by feeding on Christ, by embracing his sacrifice on the cross can we find the sustenance that leads to eternal life.
Nothing else in this world will suffice. Nothing else. Every other so -called remedy for the soul's hunger leads to death.
For apart from Christ there is no life. The Puritan Matthew Henry captures the gravity of this truth noting, quote, he says, we ought to boast with the
Apostle Paul that we reckon nothing to be excellent but Christ crucified.
Indeed, once we depart from his sacrifice, we are left with nothing but death.
This illustration points to the cross and Christ's service to mankind in fulfilling the
Father's redemptive plan of salvation. A couple of supporting scriptures for you,
Philippians chapter two. Paul writes this to the church in Philippi. He says
Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
And we have to go back to the Old Testament here. The prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53, it's where we have our
Bible open to. If you guys ever wonder what scripture is that open to, it's Isaiah 53, the suffering servant.
Listen to the prophet Isaiah. Surely, our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, but he was pierced through for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our peace fell upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth, but Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.
He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
And here it is, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.
So there you go. The prophet Isaiah was writing about you in the Old Testament, about all who would turn from their sin and return to God and by faith believe in Christ's sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins.
Yeah, we have to warn people. We do preach the judgment to come, but we preach the forgiveness of sins in the gospel.
In Christ's death, we find the banner of our righteousness and the victory over sin and death.
Without partaking of his flesh and blood, we are left to face eternal condemnation, for his sacrifice is the only path to life.
It is not enough to admire Jesus or to follow him from a distance.
We must partake of him, feed on him by faith, making his death and resurrection our own.
In verse 56, Jesus goes further, stating that whoever feeds on his flesh and drinks his blood dwells in him and he in them.
Amazing. Here we see a picture of the intimate union that believers have with Christ.
Just as the food we eat becomes part of us nourishing and sustaining us, so too does
Christ become part of those who believe in him. There is a mutual indwelling,
Christ in us, we in him, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is not a superficial or distant relationship.
It is a deep and abiding union established through faith in his sacrifice.
Let us then consider the seriousness of what Christ offers. His flesh and blood are not mere symbols only, but the true sustenance of our souls.
He truly gave up his physical flesh and blood, did he not? He truly gave himself up for us.
To feed on him by faith is to receive eternal life, to be united with him, to dwell with him, to dwell in him forever.
Without this, there is no hope. There's no hope without Christ. The Jews who quarreled with Jesus could not see beyond the physical, but we must see with the eyes of faith.
We must come to Christ, embracing his death as the source of life and trusting in him alone for our salvation.
Again, this passage does not merely reflect or point to the Lord's Supper, no.
Though the sacrament serves as a seal of this truth, the act of eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood is a continual daily act of faith, not limited to the elements of bread and wine.
No, we partake of Christ spiritually, receiving him into our souls by faith, and it is by this continual feeding on him that we are sustained.
The Lord's Supper is a precious ordinance, but it is faith in Christ, faith in his once for all sacrifice that brings life.
Brothers and sisters, let us heed Christ's words this morning. There is no life apart from him.
If we would live, we must feed on him daily, drawing all our strength, all our hope, all our comfort from his flesh and blood given for us on the cross.
The illustration Jesus gives of his upcoming sacrifice to reject him is to choose death.
This is the illustration. The illustration that Jesus gives of his upcoming sacrifice to reject him is to choose death.
To receive him is to enter into the fullness of life, now and for eternity.
Let us come to him. Let us feed on him. Let us dwell in him. And for in him alone, in him alone is life everlasting.
And here we must deal with the concept of eternity, everlasting life, eternal life.
King Solomon wrote this in Ecclesiastes chapter three, referring to God.
He says, he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so man will not find out the work which
God has done from the beginning even to the end. Eternity. This is a mystery, but it says that Yahweh, God, put the thought of eternity into the heart of man.
Every person has an idea that there's something beyond this physical world. I heard a really good illustration about this actually at the conference at one of the breakout sessions
I attended. A pastor had told me about a conversation he had with his daughter about eternity, and he was discipling his young daughter.
She's five years old. He's sharing the gospel with her. And so he's talking about eternity, eternal life, and she's asking the question,
I think they were at the table and she's eating, and she says, daddy, what is eternity?
And he says, well, honey, that's forever. Daddy, what is forever? Well, honey, that's a long time.
It's forever and ever and ever. It's like a really long time. Daddy, what is forever and ever and ever?
And so he's thinking about how to describe this, and there's a famous illustration. You may have heard it.
It's the illustration of the sparrow and the grain of sand. And so this, imagine, he actually was talking about his life, and he was from Los Angeles, so he was telling his daughter, they had gone to Santa Monica Beach, and he said, okay, honey, there's this little bird, it's a tiny little bird, it's a sparrow, a small little bird, and it's flying over the beach, and it lands on the sand and it picks up one grain of sand, one little grain of sand, and it takes that little grain of sand and flies it all the way to the sun.
I believe it's 186 ,000 miles, if I'm not correct. Don't fact check me while I'm up here. It's a long ways is the point.
That little bird picks up one grain of sand, flies it all the way to the sun, 186 ,000 miles, then has to turn around, come all the way back, 186 ,000 miles, back to that same beach, and picks up a second grain of sand, flies all the way to the sun, however long that would take, a long time, drops that second grain of sand off, flies all the way back, 186 ,000 miles, picks up a third grain of sand, flies all the way to the sun, flies all the way back, it's going to pick up a fourth grain of sand, and he says, honey, after that bird would pick up every single individual piece of the grain of sand on that beach, then it would fly to every part of the world on planet
Earth where there's a beach and pick up every single grain of sand. And he said, honey, that would just be the start of eternity.
I thought that was a good illustration. He said when he told her that, she started crying, weeping, he said, honey, what's wrong?
Why are you crying? And she said, daddy, it's just too long. I can't do that.
You think about the innocence of a child. Too long, daddy, I can't do that.
And he said, well, honey, you won't be alone, you'll be with Christ there in eternity. We have eternal life promised, freely given to us if we come to faith in Christ and we trust what he tells us, eternity.
And so as we conclude, we'll look at one more, the illumination. This is the final discourse between Jesus and the unbelieving
Jews. Verses 57 and 58 is the illumination.
He says, as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down out of heaven. Not as the fathers ate and died, he who eats this bread will live forever.
The illumination. In verses 57 and 58, we find the culmination of his discourse with the
Jewish people there. We see the glorious truths of his person and work laid before us as the bread of life.
But what do we learn from this? How does it shape our understanding of eternal life in him? Here we see the illumination from God the
Father who, through his Son, reveals the path to everlasting life. In verse 57,
Jesus speaks of the relationship between himself and the Father. As the living
Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
Christ makes it clear that he is sent by the Father as the one through whom life flows.
This takes us really back to the heart of the gospel, John 3. For God did not send the
Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. The Father is the ultimate source of all life. But he has appointed the
Son as the means by which life reaches us. Just as Christ lives because of the
Father, we too shall live if we feed on Christ. This is the heart of the matter.
To have life, we must partake of Christ. He is not merely a teacher, he is not merely a prophet, but he is the very bread of life that sustains the soul.
Without him, we are spiritually starved and dead. But with him, we are nourished unto eternal life.
To feed on Christ is to receive him in faith, to partake in his sacrifice, to make his flesh and blood our spiritual nourishment.
But what does this mean practically? Feeding on Christ is not a single act, but a continual daily reliance on him.
Just as our bodies need daily food to survive, so do our souls require daily sustenance on Christ.
This is not a superficial or occasional partaking of Christ's blessings, but a constant living communion with him.
It is to abide in his word. It is to live in obedience to his commands.
It is to rest completely and solely in his finished work on the cross. As we feed on Christ, we draw life from him, life that begins now and continues into eternity.
In verse 58, Jesus reminds his listeners that the bread he offers is far superior to the manna that the ancestors ate in the wilderness.
This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
The Jews were proud of their heritage, and they placed great significance on the manna that sustained their forefathers.
In the greater context of their whole conversation, they brought this up more than once. But Christ shows them and us that the manna was a temporary provision, only sufficient to sustain physical life for a time, but those who ate it eventually died.
But the bread that Christ offers is different. It is the bread that has come down from heaven, spiritual food that imparts eternal life.
This bread is his own flesh, given for the life of the world. Those who feed on this bread, those who trust in him and partake in his sacrifice will not die, but will live forever.
Christ, the true manna, brings with him not just a temporary reprieve from death, but everlasting life.
Dear friends, we must understand there is no neutral ground here.
Jesus presents us with two stark choices. Either we feed on him and live, or we refuse and perish.
There is no third way. The Jews in this passage quarreled and disputed, missing the life -giving truth that was before them.
How often do we, in our pride and self -sufficiency, do the same?
How often do we look for things in this life that cannot satisfy, when the true bread of life is freely offered to us?
I urge you today, do not make the same mistake as those who rejected Christ's words.
Do not seek life in the fading things of this world, in your own works, or in the fleeting pleasures of sin.
The things of the world may sustain you for a moment, but in the end, they will leave you empty and dead.
Instead, come to Christ. Feed on him. You will find life, eternal life, abundant life, life that cannot be taken away.
Consider the gravity of Christ's words. He offers himself to us as the bread of life, the only source of true and lasting life.
Just as he lives because of the Father, so we too shall live if we feed on him.
There is no other way to eternal life, for apart from him there is only death.
Let us therefore heed his call. Let us come to him in faith, trusting fully in his sacrifice, to feed on him daily.
For whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. In verses 57 and 58, we see
Jesus speaking words that demand our full attention. As the living
Father has sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
There is no confusion in these words. Jesus is telling us that our very life, everlasting life, depends on whether or not we are feeding on him.
So what does it mean to feed on him? It is more than intellectual belief.
It's more than showing up at church on Sunday. Feeding on Christ is the essence of true faith, a faith that transforms, a faith that perseveres, a faith that clings to Jesus as the source of life.
Let's not make this passage about something more than it is. We need not mistake this passage for mere spiritual language, either.
The stakes are eternal life or eternal damnation. When Jesus says whoever feeds on this bread will live forever, he is speaking about the most important reality in existence, our destiny with him or separated from him or from his grace for all eternity.
We are either those who will enjoy everlasting life with Christ or we will face eternal judgment by Christ.
Look at the Jews in this passage. They had seen Jesus perform miraculous signs.
They had witnessed him feed thousands with just five loaves of bread and two fish. They had even heard about him walking on water.
Yet in verse 52, they argue and grumble among themselves about what Jesus means when he says whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
They missed the whole point. They were so focused on the physical that they missed the spiritual reality that Jesus was offering, the bread of life himself.
And here's where it gets very practical for us. How many of us are just like these unbelieving Jews? We see the evidence of Christ's power all around us.
We have his word. We have the testimony of countless believers. And yet we're more concerned with temporal things, our careers, our comforts, our relationships than we are with the state of our souls.
Jesus isn't offering you a comfortable life. He isn't offering you health, wealth, or prosperity.
He is offering you himself and in him eternal life.
But you must come to him. You must feed on him. Not once, but daily.
And it's not that you get saved more than once. You're saved once. Do you know
Christ? Are you feeding on Christ? Is your life consumed with him or is it consumed with everything else this world has to offer?
The Jews saw the miracles but failed to see the Savior standing before them. Don't make the same mistake.
Don't make that mistake. You can't be half -hearted about this. Jesus doesn't want part of you.
He demands all of you. He must be your bread, your sustenance, the very source of your life.
And here's the beauty of it. This isn't just about eternity. It's about now. It's about our lives now.
Feeding on Christ means drawing from him, being nourished by him every day.
It means that when the trials come, when your flesh is weak, when temptation surrounds you, you are sustained by the life that only he can give.
Just as Jesus lived because of the Father, so we live because of Christ.
This is no shallow profession of faith. This is a deep, abiding relationship that transforms us from the inside out.
In verse 58, Jesus closes this profound discourse with the comparison between the manna in the wilderness and the true bread of life.
The manna was temporary. It was temporary. It satisfied physical hunger for, what, a day?
But it couldn't give eternal life. Jesus, the bread of life, the true bread of life, offers something far greater because he offers us himself.
He offers eternal life with the living God. But we must partake of him.
We must feed on him or we will perish. So I ask you, are you feeding on Christ?
Is he your life? Is he your everything? Or are you feeding on the things of this world, things that will never satisfy, things that will lead to death?
Examine yourself today. Examine yourself. This is the illumination from God, the father of everlasting life.
Jesus stands ready to give you life, but you must come to him.
The illumination. Jesus stands ready to give you life, but you must come to him.
Do not be like those who saw the miracles but missed the Messiah. Come to Christ.
Feed on him and you will live forever. In verses 52 through 58, we see the end of the discourse between Jesus and the unbelieving
Jews following the feeding of the 5 ,000 and him walking on water. So that you see the importance of feeding on Jesus, everlasting life with Christ or eternal damnation by Christ.
The infighting of the Jews, they couldn't get past their own arguments, their own self -importance to see what
Christ was offering. The implication Jesus makes to resurrection. It's not just a metaphor, it's a future event that will happen.
The illustration Jesus gives of his upcoming sacrifice. To reject him is to choose death.
The illumination from God, the father of everlasting life. Jesus stands ready to give you life, but you must come to him.
As Jesus speaks in the passage today, he makes an extraordinary and to many a bewildering claim, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
This is a hard word for some. It's jarring, disturbing even, but Jesus isn't trying to make his message easy.
He's making it clear. He's calling us to something deeper than intellectual understanding, more demanding than cultural
Christianity. He's calling us to a radical dependence on him as the source of our life, both now and for eternity.
Jesus is telling us that real life, spiritual life, eternal life only comes through him and not through some abstract belief, but through a real life giving union with him.
He says you must eat his flesh and drink his blood, which points directly to his sacrificial death on the cross.
When Jesus separates flesh from blood, he's pointing to his death. He's showing us that his body broken and his blood shed are not just theological concepts only.
They are the means by which we are saved. And unless you personally, deeply, and consistently appropriate his death for yourself, you have no life in you.
What does it mean to eat flesh, to eat his flesh, to drink his blood? It means to put all your faith, all your trust, and all your hope in his death and his resurrection.
It means to stop trusting in your own works, your own righteousness, or anything else that you think could make you right with God.
You must be sustained by Christ, nourished by him, in the same way that your body would be nourished by food or drink.
You must feed on Christ daily, drawing life from him, or you will die spiritually.
And this is where it gets serious. Jesus is making an absolute statement.
If you do not feed on me, you have no life.
You can't have a casual connection to Christ. You can't treat him like a supplement to your already good diet or good life.
He's not an accessory. He's everything. If your faith is in the wrong things, whether it's your morality, your achievements, or even your religious activities, then you are not feeding on Christ.
You are not trusting in him as your life. And here's the warning. If you're not feeding on Christ, you are dying.
If you're not, basically, if you're trusting in something else to give you life, you will not only miss out on the fullness of life now, but you will face eternal separation from the grace of God.
This is what Jesus means when he says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life.
It's not optional. It's not negotiable. But here's the beauty.
Here's the beauty of it. This is the hope of the gospel. If you do feed on Christ, if you do take him as your source of life, you will live forever.
Jesus says, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
This isn't just a future promise, it's a present reality. When you feed on Christ, you are already living in the eternal life he gives, a life that death cannot end.
So the question is, are you feeding on Christ? Is there an alternative for you?
What are you feeding on? Where is your faith? Are you trusting in the things of this world, things that are temporary, things that are fading, things that are powerless to actually save you?
Or are you feeding on the true bread of life, Jesus Christ, who alone can give you eternal life?
This passage emphasizes the weight of our decisions and the eternal consequences they carry.
In the same way, I urge you today, don't put your faith in the wrong things. Trust in him alone.